Cash May Not Be King For Finance Stocks

While corporate America is awash in cash, financial firms have been spending their hoards. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

UNLIKE THE REST of corporate America, financial companies seem to be spending rather than hoarding their cash.

In 2004, 1,700 financial institutions had roughly $900 billion in cash on their books, down from about $1.3 trillion in 2003, according to SNL Financial, a Charlottesville, Va.-based data source for the financial services industry.